VALENCIA (Jeff Taylor's Eurovision) - You only need to look back at all the years of service Nikos Zizis has given to Greece's national team and the ups and downs that he's lived to be happy for him.

This past week, Zisis had a game-high 19 points to help Fenerbahce Ulker win 75-74 at Maccabi Tel Aviv to complete a three-game sweep of their Turkish Airlines Euroleague playoff series and clinch a spot at the Final Four for the first time in club history.

It was the latest chapter in the career of one of basketball's good guys.

Zisis, 31, was in the clouds when he helped Greece win the EuroBasket 2005 title but one year later, he had to watch Greece's 101-95 upset of the United States at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Japan from the bench because of serious facial injuries suffered earlier in the tournament.

Zisis is a great player, a great pro.

When you hear his name, terrific plays, some of them game-winners, come to mind.

The clutch Zisis moment I remember best happened in Japan at the 2006 World Cup, one day before he got hurt in a game against Brazil and was lost for the rest of the tournament.

Coming off their EuroBasket 2005 title triumph in Belgrade, Greece beat Qatar 84-64 and then overcame Lithuania, 81-76, in their first two World Cup 'group of death' games in Hamamatsu.

Their luck seemed to be running out on Day 3 against a talented and hungry Australia team, but a crazy last 15 seconds happened that Zisis was involved in that frankly, I still can't believe.

Greece trailed 69-66 when Dimitris Diamantidis dribbled into the lane and passed back out to Antonis Fotsis on the left wing.

He drilled a game-tying three-pointer with nine seconds to go.

With Greece coach Panagiotis Giannakis shouting not to foul, Australia inbounded the ball.

Forward David Barlow managed to dribble the ball up the right and across midcourt, but as he cut to his left, Theo Papaloukas lunged from behind and got his hand on the ball to knock it away.

The ball ended up in the hands of Diamantidis, who took two dribbles, jumped and passed to Zisis in the exact spot where Fotsis had buried his three.

Zisis let his attempt fly and watched the ball fall through the hoop to cap a frantic finish.

Greece celebrated a 72-69 victory and then returned to the court the very next day to face a Brazil team that had Leandro Barbosa, Anderson Varejao, Marcelinho Huertas, Tiago Splitter and Alex Garcia.

Zisis was on his way to an excellent game with nine points in 15 minutes when he caught an elbow from Varejao that left him with fractured bones in his face.

Not only did he not play for the rest of the tournament, but for a while, there were fears he may never play again or at least would never be the same player.

Greece won that game, and all the others that followed up to the last four.

Zisis travelled home to Greece to receive medical treatment but flew back to Saitama to support his teammates and watched them upset the USA in their famous Semi-Final and also saw Spain throttle Greece in the Final.

He did recover from his injuries and once again became the Zisis that we had seen before.

The incident with Varejao in Japan, though, did not sit well with Greek fans, nor Zisis.

In the summer of 2012 when Greece played Brazil in a friendly game before the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT), Varejao met Zisis and made his peace.

Zisis said at the OQT in Venezuela that for him, the incident in Japan was finally in the past and he could move on.

Greece stumbled against Nigeria and failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympics, and at EuroBasket 2013, they had a great start but then came unstuck, partially due to injuries, and came up short of the Quarter-Finals.

At the World Cup last year, they made it to the Round of 16 but lost to Serbia.

Zisis did have his moments last year when he made plays, like drilling a three-pointer with the shot-clock winding down against Argentina despite having Facundo Campazzo running straight at him like a Bull seeing red.

What impresses me most about Zisis has been his unyielding commitment to his country in international competition.

Imagine, he has not missed a summer with Greece since 2004, when he suited up for the national team at the Athens Olympics.

Zisis actually started playing for Greece in November of 2002 in qualifying games for EuroBasket 2003.

This year, Zisis started with Unics Kazan but when they were knocked out of the Euroleague after the Regular Season, he joined Fenerbahce.

The association has benefitted both Zisis and the club.

"I am new to the team," he said after the win over Maccabi. "I am only here four months.

"But I understand what it means for Fenerbahce to go to the Final Four.

"It's a historic moment."

All of that instruction that he used to receive under Giannakis and the other Greek coaches about the team success being paramount then shone through.

"It was for sure a good game for me," he said, "but it was all about the team and winning to get to the Final Four.

"I want to dedicate this to the millions of fans we have back in Turkey."

Zisis always sees the bigger picture.

He also showed what a great teammate he is by tweeting to Ricky Hickman, the Fenerbahce star who went down with a ruptured Achilles tendon in late March.

Here's hoping that Zisis has a great Final Four, a terrific EuroBasket and also one more Olympic appearance.

He deserves it.

Jeff Taylor

FIBA

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